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Fresh from “math camp,” 150 teachers in Peel region are returning to classroom this week, determined to improve student numeracy in the country’s second largest school board.

In Toronto, 10 math coaches are on call for struggling students. All they have to do is go to the school board online chat room and a specially trained instructor will help them grasp an elusive concept, walk them through a difficult lesson or provide help with their homework.

Across Ontario, 800 teachers have taken advantage of summer math workshops in math and skill upgrading courses; part of a $4-million initiative announced by Education Minister Liz Sandals in January.

These efforts are badly needed. The province’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) just released the results of its 2013-2014 school achievement tests. For the fifth consecutive year, math scores dropped. Almost a third of Grade 3 students (33 per cent) failed to reach the province standard. In 2010, just 29 missed the mark. By Grade 6, things had worsened: 46 per cent were struggling, compared to 39 per cent in 2010.

“Ontario’s elementary schools do a very good job of developing student reading and writing skills,” said Brian Desbiens, head of EQAO. “We’re still not seeing the same kind of achievement in math.”

It is imperative that the gap be closed. Without a firm grounding in mathematics, kids will be shut out of livelihoods in the sciences, technology and engineering. They won’t be able to compete with talented young people from China, Japan, Korea, Switzerland or the Netherlands for the jobs of the future. They’ll have trouble drawing up a budget, calculating mortgage payments or figuring out the odds in a hockey pool.

Sandals, a former computer science instructor at the University of Guelph, needs no prodding. “Improving student achievement in math is one of our top priorities,” she told Star education reporter Kristin Rushowy.

But the education minister can’t do it alone. Ontario’s 13 faculties of education have to produce graduates who are competent to teach mathematics. (This is the ideal time to expand the curriculum as Ontario moves to a two-year teacher training program.) Senior teachers who are weak in mathematics have to make effort to become well-rounded educators and role models. And parents – especially those with hang-ups about math – have to get over their mental blocks for the children’s sake.

This is not a time for pedagogical squabbles. It doesn’t matter whether teacher training is inadequate, as the minister contends, or the curriculum is flawed, as government critics insist. Ontario can move on both fronts; school boards can experiment with innovative teaching methods; teachers can find their own balance between the discipline of math (multiplication tables, mental arithmetic) and the fun (game playing and problem solving).

Nor is it a time for outdated stereotypes. Here are a few that still prevail: Girls aren’t good at math; boys don’t like reading; teaching is a pink-collar occupation.

Most unhelpful is the head-in-the-sand attitude of the Official Opposition. Conservative education critic Garfield Dunlop accused the minister of wasting millions of dollars on education when enrolment is declining.

It is too early to tell when the $4 million Sandals announced seven months will be enough to raise math scores. It will certainly help if Toronto’s experience is anything to go by. The TDSB received a special allocation from the province to support its inner-city schools. It put some of the money into its math coaching program. In 2013, its students beat the provincial math average by five percentage points. Torontonians will learn in 2 weeks, when the EQAO releases its board-by-board students scores, whether their public schools have bee able to sustain that advantage.

More must be done. But with a numerate education minister, a team of well-trained math teachers and a vigilant electorate, Ontario should be able to pull up its socks.

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